Weak wings and a useless unicorn.

by Sugar Moon

Chapter seven

“And why exactly am I here, darling?” Rarity asked, peeking out from under the brim of her giant sun hat.

“Ah told ya. Ah need somepony to check the apples for blemishes as ah buck 'em. Twilight reckons that with my kicks, the apples are getting damaged as they fall into the bucket,” Applejack called over her shoulder. Her face scrunched up in that telltale way. She was lying, of course. Luckily for her, it was only mostly a lie. Twilight had mentioned that she thought the apples might be bruised, but that wasn’t the real reason Applejack wanted Rarity around.

And besides, so what if her bucking the trees bruised the apples slightly? Twilight really was too overprotective sometimes. How else was she meant to get them off the tree? Magic? One of them suction thingies?

No. You can't go gently with farming, and a little bruise won't hurt anypony. It doesn't make them bad apples. If it did, she herself was a bad apple.

She chuckled a little at her own joke.

“Yes, well, I suppose I can help you with that. It's the least I could do for you, what with all the help you’ve been giving me lately,” Rarity said.

Nodding, Applejack started bucking the tree closest to her. Crookshanks was a wiley tree, and as such, Applejack always took care of him first. Leave him till later on, and he'd mess up the crop rotation, or play a nasty trick on ya. It was like he hated you taking his apples. Then he shouldn't have been a gosh darn apple tree then, should he? Applejack thought as her hooves connected with a satisfying crack.

The gnarled tree shuddered and a few leaves cascaded down. But something was missing. Shouldn't there be a plink-plunk sound?

Apples. Falling into the bucket.

Looking around she noticed that the buckets were half filled with apples. Strange. There was no sound. Either that, or she was going deaf like Granny Smith.

Turning her back to the tree, Applejack prepared a final kick to knock off the rest of the apples. Crookshanks never did give up all his apples in one go. Stubborn mule of a tree.

-Thwack-

Again, leaves floated down around her, but no plink-plunk sound. Checking behind her, the buckets were filled to the brim with apples. They just hadn't made a sound.

Confused, Applejack looked straight at Crookshanks’s bark. Its swirling patterned exterior twisted into a mocking grin in Applejack’s mind. That pesky snake pulled one over on me again!

“Dang it Crookshanks! You no good pile o' wood!” Applejack shouted angrily. “I swear to Celestia, I will chop you down if you keep up these practical jokes. Making the Apples fall without a sound.” She snorted. “It's a mite trickier than your usual stunts. What happened? Hitting me with apples not funny anymore? Funnier to make me think ah’m going deaf?” She glared angrily at Crookshanks.

*Snrkt* An entirely unladylike noise escaped Rarity's mouth, trying in vain to stifle it with her hooves. But alas, it was not to be.

“Heehee!” Rarity laughed. “Heeheeheeeheee!”

“An’ just what's so funny Rarity?” Applejack said, visibly seething with anger.

Barely able to contain herself, she managed to mumble one thing before collapsing in a fit of giggles. “You!”

Composing herself somewhat, she continued. “You really think that a tree somehow has the ability to control sound waves? That it can defy all your earth pony magic to play a practical joke on you?”

“Well... Yeah.” Applejack said bluntly.

That did it. She collapsed back into her fit of giggles again.

Applejack was still a bit miffed, but something else popped into her mind.

This is the most I've ever seen her laugh. And its ‘cause of me.

She tried to stay mad at Rarity for laughing, but honestly, how could she be mad? She was making her happy just by being herself. And somehow, that made her feel good. She had never seen her friend like this. Had anypony? So carefree and full of laughter. It was so not like Rarity, but somehow... it was. She was doing this. Making Rarity open up and show a different part of her. One that maybe only Sweetie Belle ever saw. And now Applejack was seeing it. No; she was causing it. All of a sudden, being mad at her seemed kinda stupid.

Though she did want answers about the apples.

“Care to explain sugarcube?” Applejack asked, arching an eyebrow as she stood looking down at Rarity.

Clearing her throat politely, Rarity looked into Applejack's eyes with a mischievous glint that Applejack had never seen before.

“I did it, my dear.” Applejack's breath caught, and Rarity held her hooves up defensively before quickly continuing. “...by accident darling. I was just catching them in my magic to check for blemishes. It's the same spell I use to check over all my dresses to see if I somehow dropped a stitch, or to see if it has any tears.”

Applejack blinked. Then, with a huge rush of air, guffawed so loud that several birds took off in alarm.

Falling down beside Rarity, she continued laughing. Rarity joined in, still highly amused at how silly Applejack was being.

After the laughter had subsided, they both turned to each other.

Emerald locked into sapphire as they both just stared. A slight grin settled on Applejack's face as a look of wonderment was carved onto Rarity's.

“Rares?” Applejack asked hesitantly.

“Yes?” Rarity's voice hitched. This was it. This was the moment she had been waiting for. She could not believe it. She was not even aware that Applejack had those feelings for her. She thought it was just her. But now it looked like Applejack was going to kiss her, and it wasn't even in a remotely romantic setting. Awww... A filly-like part of her whined, still wishing for her fairytale romance. Collapsing into laughter and just smooching wasn't good enough for that part of Rarity.

Silence. Rarity commanded her thoughts. I have wanted her too long for me to ruin this.

“Well ah...” Applejack stumbled.

“Yeeesss?”

“Was just wondering an all...”

“Yeeeeeessssss?” The wait was killing Rarity.

“...if you know any other fancy tricks with that there horn of yours?” Applejack said awkwardly.

Looking down at her hooves to hide her disappointment, she said, “Yes. Of course.” She looked back up, a bright faux smile plastered over her face. “I am a unicorn, you know.” She tittered, but it sounded hollow, even to her.

Struggling up to her hooves, Applejack trotted off to the next tree.

“Maybe you could tell me about 'em? And about how you learned 'em? Could help us while away a few hours as we work,” she asked as her hind legs connected with the tree.

Standing up to join her Rarity said, “Yes, that sounds lovely.”

She sniffed back a tear before it could form. It would not do to cry. It was just her imagination, after all. Nothing to be upset about.

“Well, my first spell, as you know, was the gem finding spell I got my cutie mark for. Oh, I remember it like it was yesterday....

Comments

[Plotbuster]

Nice chapter. Kinda figured this story was dead, glad to see I was wrong.

[Cold Spike]

YAY! MOAR!... WAIT...I STILL WANT MOAR!

[Kail]

A bit short and kinda pouty at the end but a nice chapter I think.

[ScatMan2001]

THANK CELESTIA IT'S BACK!!!
I love you so much, and I adore your story.
But please don't make me wait 3 more months for another chapter!
My heart can't take it anymore!
Hugs and kisses,
ScatMan

[Mattricole]

Yeah an update!

....Why is it so short ?

Oh well, they do say quality over quantity.

[Skeletalbrony]

I thought this story died! Screw sleep im reading this.

[Sugar Moon]

1983476 Me too. This was the first story I started that I actually really enjoyed. The idea and fun of it is kinda close to my heart. I'm not gonna let it die and I hate that it took so long to write this. Hopefully more regular updates soon as the next chapter is finished.

1983515 Don't worry moar is coming. If you don't believe me read my blog.

1983616 Yeah perhaps but this originally wasn't the end. Merely the end of a scene in a much longer chapter that I cut down.

1983858 Yeah its short. Originally it was way longer. About 4000 words when I stopped writing but after getting that far and still hadn't finished it so I chopped it up into three. The next chapter is done just wanna finish the third before I post it though. I hope that answers your question and that the chapter was as good as you hoped.

1983692 I won't I promise. If you happen to read my blog you'll know that the next chapter is coming very soon. Heck it's even finished. And another after that is about 1/3 the way to completion. And in my opinion thats the fun one. As soon as I finish that I'll post them. Maybe stagger them a little. Expect the next chapter to be out on wednesday at the latest. And I do mean at the latest. I ain't letting this story get so far away from me again.

1984883 Nope. Just procrastination. This story is a bit special to me. It was the first that I had a lot of fun with and didn't butcher by cutting out scenes left and right or by adding unnecessary points to. It won't die as long as I'm alive and hopefully the next chapter will be up in a few days. It's already done I just want to finish the chapter after that first. Why? because they're really just one big chapter split up.

TL:DR It ain't dead and updates very soon. I promise.

[Mattricole]

1984952 Oh it was as good as I hoped, just a little short but looking back that's not really a big deal. Can't wait for the next chapter !

[brad70505]

Yes an update